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The is the second “clip show that’s not a real clip show” episode I’ve reviewed this season, so I think we might be seeing the trend beginning to peak. “Caves” from Lower Decksdidn’t get as meta as “Rickfending Your Mort” ultimately does, but both start from the same premise: using the format of the clip show as a structure for a collection of short gags and sketches, letting the writers play around with one-off ideas without having to worry about them needing to support an entire story.

For an episode that ends with a nuclear submarine nearly starting World War III, “Betrayed” is kind of boring right? After last week’s episode got me excited that Secret Invasion was finding its footing, this week’s installment left me wondering if the show can actually build something cohesive out of its disparate parts now that it’s officially reached the halfway mark. “All faith is built on risk,” Gravik's second-in-command Pagon tells new recruit Beto at the start of this episode.

Something must have gone wrong, right? There’s no way Marvel’s big, splashy Nick Fury series was supposed to end with three 33-minute episodes and one of the most non-committal finales I’ve ever seen. Secret Invasion’s copious ADR has long hinted at a series that was chopped up in the editing room. And “Home” somehow has both the piecemeal feel of an episode stitched together in a panic, and also the unearned confidence of a finale that—at least at one point—was seemingly supposed to tease a second season.

Last episode ended with all three major players--Lord Toranaga, Anjin, and Mariko--in the same room together. It was framed to make the importance of the moment obvious: Toranaga and Anjin are going to need one another if they're going to survive, and Mariko is likely going to be crucially important to both men (although her goals remain a mystery, at least for now). The second episode, "Servants of Two Masters," picks up right where "

Seppuku seems a singularly unpleasant way to die. There are many ways to commit suicide, of course, ranging from the (hopefully) peaceful to the outright horrific, but seppuku distinguishes itself by both the visceral nature of its self-inflicted violence and by the context in which it is performed. It is not the sort of thing you dabble with while in a depressive funk. It is, in its way, the ultimate expression of one’s will against one’s instincts: to stare the desire to survive and persist straight in the eye and choose otherwise.

Welcome back to Episodic Medium’s coverage of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which returns for its second season on Paramount+. As with all of our coverage, this first review is free for all, but future reviews (and our reviews of last season) are reserved for paid subscribers. Here’s a full look at our summer schedule, and you can find out more about our coverage on our About Page. Hey, we’re back!

Early in “I Don’t Want to Be the Worm,” Jake passes out for a second time, in an incident extremely similar to the one from a few episodes ago. It triggers an emotional package about his battle with a binge eating problem, showcasing two years of work to get himself into better shape both physically and mentally. And it comes after a lengthy interlude at Belo where the players talk about the impact that 10 days of little to no food is having on all players’ minds and bodies.

In the third episode of Ted Lasso’s second season, Keeley is explaining bantr to the players as she ropes them into her side hustle doing PR for the new app. As she points out how the app spells its name, Colin pipes in “Oh, like grindr,” and Keeley briefly raises her eyebrow before going on with her explanation. Two episodes later, bantr was the team’s main sponsor, and Colin…well, Colin was back into the ranks of AFC Richmond’s midfield, offering an occasional one-liner as necessary.

Writing about Ted Lasso’s third season from behind the comfort of Episodic Medium’s paywall has created something of a bubble. Generally speaking, the people paying to subscribe to a television criticism newsletter are going to be more critical of the television they watch, or at least more open to the premise of that criticism. And while it’s very possible there are paid subscribers who have loved the third season and simply haven’t chosen to defend it in the comments, those who have joined the discussion have generally operated with a shared understanding that this season has suffered from massive structural issues.